well to dig. Hundreds of tomatoes weighing half-a-pound
each. It's ridiculously low."

"It's time for me to part. Will you accept my price, Mr. Fallon,
'Yes' or 'No?'"

After much grumbling and protestations on the part of the farmer,
with assertions that he would be ruined giving away his land like
that, the transaction was agreed to.

Going home, Frank reviewed in his mind the state of his finance.

He possessed the house, garden, greenhouse and workshop, minus his
step-mother's dowry, and plus five hundred pounds cash. "I cannot do
much with that," he thought, "but I have enough to begin with."

And now where were his ambitious castles; where was the successful
inventor, the possessor of hundreds of thousands--contemplating to
build two span-roofed greenhouses in which he would have to work and
perspire when the thermometer would often stand at from eighty to
ninety degrees.

However, he was full of hope, his ambition had received a severe
blow, but it still clung to him. He feared to aim too high now, and
failures he dreaded. "I must begin at the bottom of the ladder," he
said to himself, "and, with God's help, I shall succeed."

He resolved to work with his brains as well as with his hands. "I
have some education," he thought, "and I will seize the
opportunities as they present themselves. I do not care for riches
now. If only I could succeed in securing enough money to put me out
of the danger of want, I should be satisfied."

Since his adventure in the garden, he had not dared to go again near
"Les Marches."

He thought that Mr. Rougeant had perhaps recognised him, but,
fortunately for him, Adele's father had failed to discern his
crouching figure.

CHAPTER XII.

A STRANGE MEETING.

Three months afterwards, Frank was planting his tomatoes in his
greenhouses. He had two span-roofs, each one hundred and forty feet
long by forty feet wide.

He had sold the workshop which was situated a few yards to the north
of the house, and had thus been enabled to build larger houses than
he at first intended.

He heard vague rumours about his step-mother going to marry again.
If the truth must be said, Frank felt delighted at the prospect of
getting rid of her. He had never cared for her much, and, recently,
the gap that had always existed between them had been considerably
enlarged.

He had been out on business and had arrived rather late in the
evening, at which Mrs. Mathers was terribly displease